Magazine

Battle of the Kites

Slide Show | The Kite Sky Photographs from the International Kite Festival in Gujarat.

Tobias Hutzler

February 28, 2014

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Photographs by TOBIAS HUTZLER

There is perhaps no event more anticipated in Gujarat, a state in India’s northwest, than the International Kite Festival every January. Residents prepare for months, making kites in bright colors, using elaborate designs that have been passed down for generations. On the main day of the festival, people get up before dawn to fly their kites from rooftops and, with any luck, cut down competing kites. (Some kite strings have been dipped in an emulsion that includes finely ground glass.) When a participant successfully downs another kite, a small trumpet sounds a victory blast. The festival, which is celebrated at the end of the mild Indian winter, when daytime temperatures hover in the 80s, is tied to a traditional day on the Hindu calendar that marks the change of seasons. “Flying a kite brings good luck and good fortune in the new year,” says Tobias Hutzler, who captured images of the festival. “They are sending wishes into the air.” Julie Bosman